Former mayor of Bedford and vice-president of the Lévesque-Craighead Foundation, Yves Lévesque. (Alain Dion/La Voix de l’Est Archives)
“We had more than 130 people in the room despite the temperature. This is a sign that people are very worried. People from the CIUSSS came to create a diversion. But, that didn’t change anything. We have completely lost confidence in them,” said in an interview the former mayor of Bedford, Yves Lévesque, vice-president of the Lévesque-Craighead Foundation who has worked on the expansion project for more than a decade and who was committed to paying several hundred thousand dollars for its completion.
The Voice of the East revealed last Thursday the new about-face in the CHSLD of Bedford case. Contrary to what was announced in 2022, the establishment will not be expanded, decided the CIUSSS de l’Estrie.
Same observation from the health committee of the Bedford center. “The room was full for the meeting we organized. There were obviously a lot of elders. It is their fate that is being decided, argued the spokesperson for the group, Pierrette Messier. Citizens are disappointed, frustrated. The population is really furious.”
Petition
The assistant general director for general and specialized physical health programs at the CIUSSS, Annie Boisvert and her colleague, the director of long-term care accommodation Rosane Rivard, participated in the meeting on Monday. According to Mr. Lévesque, they tried to convince the crowd of the merits of the decision to put an end to the expansion project, in vain.
The spokesperson for the Bedford cluster health committee, Pierrette Messier. (Archives La Voix de l’Est)
To demonstrate the population’s indignation, a citizen launched a petition. This has been in circulation in Bedford for a few days, mentioned Pierrette Messier and Yves Lévesque. “The next step to change things is to focus on the political aspect. The CIUSSS does not want to hear anything and is not listening to the needs of the people here,” said the representative of the health committee.
“There will certainly be many people signing the petition. We will find a way to have her dropped off in her room [parlementaire]», indicated Mr. Lévesque, specifying that a meeting is planned this week with the Member of Parliament for Brome-Missisquoi and Minister responsible for Sport, Recreation and the Outdoors, Isabelle Charest, in order to resolve the impasse. “We will see which way Ms. Charest leans,” he imagined.
Resignation from the board of the CIUSSS
Serge Therrien, who has been a member of the board of directors of the CIUSSS de l’Estrie since 2015, has just left the ship, has learned The Voice of the East.
The main person concerned draws a “brutal observation” of the lack of vision of the CIUSSS. “We are in the presence of drifting management overwhelmed by events,” we can read in his resignation letter from the Bedford resident, of which we have obtained a copy.
He refers in particular to several controversial files in which the CIUSSS de l’Estrie has been involved since its creation, almost a decade ago. Notably the drama of “the little girl from Granby, the CHSLD Leclerc investigation, the police intervention in Val-du-Lac, and the investigation by the Public Procurement Authority”.
Remember that at the end of its investigation, the AMP reprimanded the CIUSSS concerning agreements with private employment agencies. The investigation demonstrated that the CIUSSS “erred in the budgetary monitoring of these contracts, resulting in cost overruns of up to 922% of the initially planned price,” reported The gallery last May.
“When [le CIUSSS] gives an over-the-counter contract below $120,000 and it ends at $900,000 and even at 1.2 million, obviously, we cannot say that they are champions in assessing needs” , he lamented in an interview.
Serge Therrien also evokes a disconnection of the CIUSSS from its obligations towards the population. “Bad assessment, missing overall vision, broadening of the notion of emergency,” he cites as examples.
“In this context I will leave it to others to serve as moral guarantor for an organization whose credibility is crumbling,” indicated the former member of the board of directors.
Although the Bedford CHSLD file was not the main point that led him to slam the door, Serge Therrien deplores the position of the CIUSSS. “It’s definitely not a good decision. [de stopper le projet d’agrandissement]. It’s important that this file comes to fruition.”
According to him, the fact that the CIUSSS insists that it is now focusing on home care rather than adding places in CHSLDs in the Bedford region does not hold water. “We are not talking about the same clientele. I don’t see how home care can make a difference for people who need care for four to five hours a day. How can a CIUSSS executive explain things of this nature to us?
